A Stanford University professor has made history as the first woman to receive the super-prestigious Fields Medal aka the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics aka the Nobel Prize of Mathematics.
Iranian-born Maryam Mirzakhani was awarded the medal by the International Mathematical Union in Seoul for her work in geometry. The work she’s carried out in her field admittedly goes a little over our heads, but we don’t feel so bad about that, because supposedly some of the worlds top maths scholars can’t wrap their heads around it either.
Maryam won the prize for her work on something known as ‘moduli space’, which is terrifically complex and can seem impossible to work on, according to the International Mathematical Union. She made sense of what was previously considered a chaotic area, studying complex geometric forms and bringing order to them.
She compares her quest to ‘being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck you might find a way out’. She said she hopes the prize will encourage young female mathematicians.
Her work has the potential to unravel some mysteries of the origins of the universe – yes, the universe. Not the earth, we know that part. But the actual entire universe, which is completely mind-blowing.
A total of four people were awarded the medal this year.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.